Thursday, January 23, 2025

Going Buggy

      Hi everyone. Happy Thursday to you. I hope your week is going well. Like the temperatures for so many of you it's been a cold week at my house.  Yesterday morning it was -10 degrees F (-23 degrees C) without a windchill. And since this is our second very cold spell, I am ready for a bit of a warm up. I'm guessing many of you are too. 😏

     Today I have another Dots page for Mia's challenge at Art Journal Journey. If the weather isn't making you go buggy, my page certainly would. 



      I used a ladybug (ladybird beetle) set from Hero Arts. I started by stamping those beetles  all over my page Then I used watercolor paints to make them colorful. I know you probably haven't seen a green, blue or purple ladybug, but that's the beauty about creating and being able to make them whatever color feels right.

      On all the white space I hand wrote lines (over and over) from this old Mother Goose Rhyme:

Ladybird, ladybird,
Fly away home,
Your house is on fire
And your children all gone;
All except one
And that's little Ann,
And she has hid under
The baking pan.

      In the middle of my page I placed a sticker quote (Art by Marlene) as well as a white frame around it. Then I sprayed my age with a bit of magenta paint. To finish, I stamped another  ladybug on some white paper. After coloring, I cut her out and glued her down. Then I added a couple of googly eyes to her.

And yesterday afternoon, at one point when I looked out the window, I saw this.


    Poor little bird. But it was cool to see this hawk. The hawk wasn't a very big bird so I think it was a sharp shinned (sharpie). I guess they have to eat also. 

    Have a great rest of your day.

     




14 comments:

Iris Flavia said...

-23C - oh, buhuuuuuu. Your cute page thankfully rather speaks of summer! And Ann, so cute.
I wonder if those birds feel cold, "hate" winter? I sure do... OK, 2-3 days of snow would be OK ;-)
Have a great Thursday, hugs

David M. Gascoigne, said...

The normal interaction between predator and prey. The hawk has to use stealth and skill, humans do it with a gun. All the best - David

Tom said...

...ladybugs are the best!

Angie's Recipes said...

The first page has me long for spring! Very beautiful and kinda fun!

Jeanie said...

The bird. I know. I hate to see it too. Hard to find food out there but so sad.

Neet said...

We often see feathers from a pigeon on our lawn. No idea who gets them but I suspect its the owl we sometimes hear at night. To be honest the pigeons seem a bit 'dim' and they don't move very fast but it is not nice to see. All part of nature though!
Cannot imagine how cold -10 is but I am glad it is not that here. Most of our days are misty and sometimes rain comes down but as long as we don't get snow I am happy.
I remember that rhyme we used to say when we were kids. Quite cruel when you think about it, like a taunt to get them scurrying back to where they came from. But I have a thing for ladybirds. I used to love to play with them on my hand, swapping fingers for them to climb all over. I never thought of them as being beetles. That shows that we judge by our eyes at times and because the ladybird is pretty (certainly compared to a beetle) we don't find the same revulsion. (Not that everyone is repulsed by them and some find them pretty). The type we have in England are the black ones so not pretty at all.
However, I love your page, love all the ladybirds and all the different colours. Makes me think of the different spots we can count on the ones we have and the reversal of colour or the variation of the red shade.
Hugs, Neet xx

Elkes Lebensglück said...

o is it cold where you are? It's gone up to 6 degrees here today.
What you saw, the falcon is great but it also needs food!
Your journal page is beautiful with the ladybirds, I wouldn't have thought that they had dots. Brilliant!!! The saying fits...
Hopefully the weather won't get any colder!
Hugs Elke

Christine said...

Lovely page, it warmed up a bit here.

hels said...

The poor dead little bird would have struggled finding food in a snowy climate anyhow. What a tough world it lived in.

*Vicki* said...

What a really fun page with your ladybugs! I love the different colors and your wording around them is a great idea! I try to create every day, but sometimes I can't get there! LOL

Anonymous said...

Beautiful page, Erika. I really love your ladybugs.
As for the hawk, it is a beautiful bird (I feel sorry for the poor bird, but the hawk has to eat during winter too).
Kisses!!!

Anonymous said...

And thank you for joining in my challenge in AJJ. Kisses, my friend.

carol l mckenna said...

Lovely ladybug creation ~ lots of warming hugs,

Wishing you good health, laughter and love in your days,
clm ~ A ShutterBug Exlores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)

Mia said...

My dear Erika, I left you two messages and I see that I was "anonymous"!!!